The most important group to be consulted here is the faculty using the tapes -- if they were not, it's not too late to engage them in using the power they have to demand the services they need to teach. That means not only the collections libraries have, but the equipment to view. If there's faculty backlash, it's best used to support everyone, not just the few who want to take the tape and deal with the problem on their own. Depends upon the size of your institution, but here there would be many in line to use some of our irreplaceable tapes. At Rutgers, our equipment support is talking about phasing out vcrs, but I have expectations that faculty needs will come first, and it will be done in some coordinated fashion. Not that that is what will happen. . . It might be our job to pick up the pieces in the end, but it's good to at least try to demand other units be accountable for necessary services. Maybe a little cost analysis will get you somewhere. . or at least delay the process, which might be as effective as anything. How many tapes are being used by how many faculty? What is the cost of replacing with available commercial dvd? How many do not have a dvd equivalent? must be more. . . Jane
Hannah Lee wrote: > I sympathize with Beth, because it's the exact situation that we're > going through right now. I'm very new to the library, and apparently > there's a long history with the weeding of our VHS collection. The IT > department made the decision not to service VHS players, and they were > also under the mistaken impression that they could just make DVD > copies of all of the VHS tapes we own. For the past couple of years, > we've been slowly examining the VHS tapes we own (about 3,000) and > finding suitable DVD or streaming media replacements. The process has > been good in some ways, in the sense that we're updating our > collection (some of the VHS tapes are 30 years old) with newer and > more relevant content. Because some of the faculty members raised a > lot of fuss about the library withdrawing these films, we've allowed > them to come to the library and take any withdrawn VHS to add to their > own personal collections. This way they can still show the VHS tapes > if they want. The rest, we plan on selling at the book sale that's > coming up. > > Thanks, > Hannah Lee > Harper College Library > > On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:00 PM, Shoaf,Judith P <jsh...@ufl.edu> wrote: > >> Hmm--so it is going to be easier to convert 5000 VHS tapes to DVD than to >> keep VHS players in working order? What will the resulting DVDs be like? I >> suspect that digitizing and constructing a useful and reliable DVD will be >> more expensive than buying a commercial one. >> >> I recall a thread (this list? A different one?) about the relative >> usefulness in the classroom of a cued-up VHS tape vs. a DVD with its scenes >> menu. Behind the whole clips-compilation exception is the fact that >> instructors do not want to waste valuable class time finding the right place >> on a videorecording of a movie. >> >> A DVD with no scenes menu, etc. will be less useful even than a tape. A DVD >> with a scenes menu requires a lot of work by someone who knows something >> about that movie. >> >> Setting aside the principle as Gary enunciates it and the flagrant >> illegality, the practicality of the undertaking is pretty fuzzy. >> >> Judy Shoaf >> >> VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues >> relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, >> preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and >> related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective >> working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication >> between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and >> distributors. >> >> > > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues > relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, > preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and > related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective > working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication > between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and > distributors. > VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.
